Amanda Quiney, 28, from Tipton, has waived her legal right to anonymity to speak out after being raped in Sandwell Valley Country Park on the morning of 29 June. She is now joining West Bromwich MP Sarah Coombes on a walk through the park to reclaim it as a safe space for women and girls. Amanda is also fundraising to create a community 'safe place to sit' in her local area.
The attack and its aftermath
On the sunny morning of 29 June, Amanda was walking a quiet path back to her car in Priory Woods, a spot she called her 'safe place' to escape the demands of being a mum to four young children. With earpods in and a book in hand, she remembers a sudden pain and then darkness. She woke up in the bushes, with her underwear and leggings down to her ankles, no shoe, no book, no phone, and her head bleeding. She told the Birmingham Mail: "I just remember being hit. I was okay...then there was just this force to the back of my head and that’s as far as I remember until I woke up."
When she came round, she was confused and terrified: "I’m thinking, what’s happened, what’s gone on, what have I done, and it was the confusion and the terrifying bit that there was nobody around."
Three reasons for speaking out
Amanda, who lives in Tipton with her husband and four children aged three to nine, has three reasons for going public. First, she hopes her story will lead police to her attacker. Second, she wants to remove the stigma surrounding sexual violence. Third, she wants to create a legacy for local people who feel unsafe or alone.
She said: "I battle every day with 'what ifs'. What if I did one thing differently...maybe I could have seen who it was, maybe I could have seen someone, and I think every day since." Despite the self-blame, she is determined not to be broken: "I can’t let this person ruin me...I have four children who need their mum, I have a husband who needs me, if I end everything the way I wanted to the day it happened, what is that going to achieve?"
Support from her husband and the 'safe to sit' dream
Amanda described her husband's reaction after the attack: "I felt disgusting and trampy, I thought 'my husband is never going to love me the same, is never going to look at me the same again.'" But he told her: "this hasn’t changed anything, I love you more now than I ever have before." She added: "To hear that from someone who is your whole life I was like, you know what, I’ve done the right thing (speaking out)."
Her vision is for a coffee shop-style community space where people can seek help and advice, or just find a quiet spot to read or listen to music. In a gofundme appeal, she wrote: "Somewhere to Sit has become more than just my dream. It’s become my purpose. It has given me something to fight for when everything inside me wanted to give up." She added: "My dream is still the same: to create a safe, welcoming place where anyone feeling lonely, struggling with their mental health, grieving, or going through trauma can walk through the door, have a drink, sit with someone who cares, and know they aren’t alone."
Amanda, who has faced trauma before, including a sexual attack as a teenager, said the project is keeping her sane: "Going through it again, and not being able to speak, without doing this, it would have broke me. This would have absolutely destroyed me and my family." She is determined: "Nobody is going to stop me from making a place to be safe."
Police investigation continues
West Midlands Police said in a statement: "Our enquiries are continuing as part of a rape investigation in Sandwell Valley Country Park. The attack happened to a woman in the Priory Woods area of the park on Monday, 29 June at around 10.15am." The statement added that the woman is receiving support from specialist officers, and that they have reviewed CCTV footage, spoken to potential witnesses, and received forensic evidence. Anyone with information is asked to call 101 quoting 20/304639/26.
